Mr. Seán Coughlan:

I shall make one comment. I agree with Deputy Collins that social enterprises and enterprises are the same. I find it interesting that we tend to draw a divide between them. What is the divide between a social enterprise and a commercial business? Functionally they operate in the marketplace, they compete on quality of product, service and value for money. When one drills it down the only difference is where the profits go when a company is successful and profitable, either it goes to a set of individuals comprising shareholders or owners or it goes back into making a bit of a difference in the world. That is the fundamental difference between the two. Why would we, as a State or country, show bias towards one rather than the other? Why would we be biased towards supporting, in a very substantial manner, the companies where profits go towards benefitting a select number of individuals? I mean biased in the sense of not having supports in place, equal support and parity of support and access. I mean biased against companies where profits go to the general community. Other than that both types of enterprise are the same. Therefore, I endorse and fully concur with the perspective outlined by Deputy Collins. It seems to me that the economic benefits are the same because both create jobs and contribute to the local economy. Social enterprise provides a higher amount of social benefits. We need a parity of access and parity of esteem between social enterprise and business enterprises.